


After everything we’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?

by heeeymackelena



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, continuation of their last scene in S4 finale, tumblr prompt fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 12:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15841566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heeeymackelena/pseuds/heeeymackelena
Summary: After their conversations in the Framework, Elena is unsure if the real Mack still loves her.





	After everything we’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?

_“Those years with her, as a father, they will always be a part of me. But they also gave me a glimpse of a life I could have here, with you.”_

Eventually, Elena’s legs start to shake from standing on her toes to kiss Mack. They are forced to break apart, but Mack doesn’t loosen his tight embrace around her shoulders and waist. Instead, he pulls her into a hug as they both catch their breath. With her head pressed against him, nose full of his cologne and wrapped in his warmth, Elena feels at peace for the first time since this whole adventure started.

“I love you.” Mack whispers in her ear.

Elena’s body tenses in his arms. She pulls away to look up at him, eyes still glassy from their earlier conversation.

“You do?”

Mack looks back at her in disbelief. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had said it. “After everything we’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?”

Elena hesitates before answering. “I wasn’t sure you still did.” 

She pulls away from him fully, looking down at the steel floor beneath them. She bites her lip as she recalls their conversation on the bus, and how desperate she had been to remind him. 

“I was so sure going into the Framework that you would just  _look_  at me and remember.” She shakes her head at her own naivete. “I didn’t want to believe that someone who loved me could forget about me just like that.”

Guilt spread through Mack’s body before settling like a stone in his stomach. The situation inside the Framework had been beyond his control. He had made the choice to stay, but under an altered state of mind. What counts as free will when you’re living inside a computer program? When someone else decides what you do and don’t remember?

“That Mack didn’t love me. He didn’t even recognize me. And I wasn’t sure, after all that, what this Mack would feel.”

“I’m different now... I have different memories, but nothing is ever going to make me stop loving you. We’ve been through too much.”

Elena nods slowly in agreement. Their relationship had already been tested in the hardest of ways, and it was still early days. Mack lifts her chin with a knuckle, his signature comfort move, and then runs it across her jaw.

“But all that has only made us stronger. We’ll always come out on top, mi amor, because we fight for each other.”

Elena’s trademark grin spreads across her face at his reassurance, and his cheesy term of endearment. Seeing her brighten up, Mack can’t help but dip down for another peck on the lips. This time it’s soft and comforting, not so desperate and full of need. 

He pulls away abruptly at a familiar feeling behind him. “Did you just try to grab my butt?”

“Sorry, it was habit.”


End file.
